Yorkshire Senior League Hockey Bad Weather Rearrangements for 17/18 March 2018.Once again it looks the weather will affect the league hockey programme this coming weekend (Sat/Sun 17/18 March 2018).We would like to remind clubs that they need to make decisions about whether matches are on or not as early as possible to allow opponents to be informed before they travel.When postponing a match it is not sufficient to just show the match as postponed on the YHA Website, leave a text message, or send an email.Please make verbal contact with opponents so that you can get positive confirmation that they know their game is off, and after that follow up with a confirmation email.We need clubs to show match postponements on the YHA Website as soon as possible after they are postponed. The sooner we have this information, the sooner we can make decisions about how it will be dealt with.Watch this space for more information once we have a better idea of how the weather will affect the hockey league programme this weekend.

Potential Bad Weather Postponements 10 & 11 March 2018The weather forecast for 10/11 March (as of today, Sunday 4 March) is much better and unless there is significant change during the week it now looks likely that pitches should be OK.If this changes, and if there are difficulties in rearranging fixtures to the deadlines shown above, all clubs will be advised of any further extension to the end-of-season date.Before then please try to rearrange fixtures by the current (extended) end-of-season date of Sunday 25 March 2018.

Bad Weather Postponements 3 & 4 March 2018There are still fixtures for 3 & 4 March that are not shown as postponed or with a score added; PLEASE UPDATE THESE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO AVOID FINES. When shown as 'postponed' with reason, we will move them to 24 & 25 March respectively.Fixtures postponed due to bad weather on 3 & 4 March have been moved en bloc to 24 & 25 March 2018.PLEASE NOTE:

A note has been added to each of these fixtures stating the date they were moved and advising the home club that they need to add the start time and venue information and then confirm the match with your opponents.

Any of these ‘moved’ fixtures can be rearranged to another date TO or BEFORE 25 March 2018.

HOME TEAMS WILL NEED TO:

Confirm start time and venue information with their venue.

Confirm match details with opponents

Once start time and venue information is confirmed with your venue and has been confirmed with your opponents, update the fixture on the YHA Website, remove the note, and add any pertinent match info to the fixture.

Rearrange any fixtures that were previously moved to 24 or 25 March 2018 to a date BEFORE 25 March (if there is a fixture clash for either team). You can play league matches in the evening if needed, or even play two games in a day to get them in before the end-of-season deadline of 25 March (it’s been done before)!

YYHL Boys & Girls Under-10s at University of Leeds on 4 March 2018The Boys & Girls Under-10s YYHL Session on 4 March 2018 at the University of Leeds has been called off "From Carl Smith, Head of Hockey, University of Leeds:To all Hockey customers and partners of Sports Park Weetwood, University of Leeds,Unfortunately due to the severe weather, Weetwood has been forced to close as all pitches are unplayable. The facility will re-open on Monday 5th March meaning that all bookings and fixtures due today, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are cancelled.We hope that we have made the call early enough to give you all plenty of time to get the message out to home teams, travelling teams and officials."

Bad Weather Postponements for the Weekend of 3/4 March 2018The weather forecast for this coming weekend, 3/4 March 2018, is not good and if the forecast is right we could lose the entire league programme to snow covered/frozen pitches.All Clubs are urged to make a decision about fitness of pitches as early as possible to prevent unnecessary journeys.Please make sure that you update any postponed fixture on the YHA Website to show as 'postponed' with the reason for postponement.If 75% of fixtures in a league are postponed due to bad weather all postponed fixtures will be moved en bloc to the slip date of Saturday 24 March 2018.Clubs that have already rearranged fixtures for Saturday 24 March (13 matches in the Men's League, six in the Women's League) will need to rearrange those matches for Sunday 4,11 or 18 March 2018.Please note that the official end of season date is the weekend of 17/18 March. Matches, other than bad weather postponements moved en bloc to 24 March, not played by 18 March may be declared null and void.The weather forecast for the weekend of 10/11 March is also not looking promising This could entail further en bloc movement of postponed fixtures from 10 March to Saturday 7 April 2018.More information will be made available once we know the full impact of bad weather postponements over the next two weekends.Please Note: Matches postponed on Saturday 3 March CAN be played before 24 March if clubs so wish. Clubs could also choose to play evening matches, or play more than one game in a day, as a way of completing league programmes. (You would obviously need your opponent's agreement to do this!)

EH Coach Development Programme for Teacherswww.englandhockey.co.uk 20.12.2017England Hockey is delighted to announce our Coach Development Programme for Teachers. This bespoke development opportunity is for school teachers and coaches where hockey is a priority at their school.This six programme is based on feedback received from last year’s Schools Conference and provides a variety of opportunities to support coaching in continuing their personal development and to inspire more, better, happier players.Click here for more information

EH Club Forums: "Your World Cup"www.englandhockey.co.ukDuring the coming months I will be delivering Club Forums across the region on the theme of “Your World Cup”. In July and August 2018 we have the chance to maximise the effect of the exposure that the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup will bring at both a national and local level, with 180 hours of hockey on TV over the year.We hope that this increased visibility will work for clubs in the same way London and Rio did and consequently we would like to support clubs to take advantage of this and increase their membership.We know every club is different and clubs want to develop in different ways so we have created a suite of tools to help offering various options for clubs!These forums will give yours and neighbouring clubs the opportunity to talk though the opportunities and benefits that your club could have from being part of Your World Cup campaign including free hockey resources, promotional tools to a once in a life time experiences at the Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup.

The evening is likely to cover the following ways to benefit from Women’s World Cup:-• Increase Capacity at sessions to cater for extra demand• Supporting Schools to deliver hockey in Primary or Secondary education• Driving interest in different ways to play the game (Back to Hockey, Small Sided Games, Pay and Play sessions etc)• Engage with local media and increase reach of community events

The world cup will be a fantastic opportunity and to help make the most of this opportunity we are launching the ‘Your World Cup’ campaign; this campaign aims to inspire clubs to seize the opportunity of hosting the next big event after the Olympics, a World Cup on English soil. I am really keen to meet as many clubs as possible across the region to discuss and share ideas on how we can make the most of this fantastic opportunity at your club.

We am sorry to have to report that John Siddall died on Monday 8th January.In addition to his membership of Styx Hockey Club he was a Past President of both Halifax Hockey Club & Yorkshire County Hockey Association.We understand that his funeral will take place at Park Wood Crematorium Halifax at 10.30 am on Saturday 20th January

EH Cup Yorkshire: U16 Boys & Girls New Date & Venue For The FinalsWe plan to play the EH Cup Yorkshire Finals for the U16 Boys & Girls at BEN RHYDDING HC on Sunday 4th February. Not the ideal solution but the best option we have.Below new timing for the Cup games.The YYHL U16 Boys Order of Play has been adjusted as the four teams in the Cup final are not participating in the LeagueAs a result there is some adjustment to venues used by the YYHL U16 Boys and some team movement.CUP FINAL UMPIRES: We hope that YHUA will be able to help us once again on this rearranged date but we may need to provide our own UMPIRES to officiate these games.We will let you know if YHUA can supply umpires. If not each team will need to bring a suitably qualified and experienced Umpire with them. We will confirm any Umpire support from the YHUA if and when we get it.

YHA Men's League Postponed MatchesPlease not that this is the present situation regarding postponed fixtures.Sat 25 November - these had all to be rearranged by 16/17 December02 December - these again had to be rearranged by 16/17 December, with exceptions if you liaised with your Div Rep and a date was agreed.09 December - these were moved en bloc due to the 75% or more rule to the 17 Feb slip date. Those matches that had been rearranged to that date have to be moved earlier - not later - in the season. Matches cancelled on 10 December had to be played by 16/17 December unless agreed otherwise with your Div Reps.16/17 December – these may now be replayed by Sun 28 January.

The situation now is that ALL postponed matches must be played by Sun 28 January. Any outstanding matches after that date from the 4 weekends will be investigated. You must liaise with your Div Rep at all times.

Just a few points:

A player from the club should check the pitch rather than relying on Sports Centre Staff/Groundsman. After all, they won't be on the receiving end of a lifted ball and/or other possible injuries.

The pitch must be fully fit to use at the scheduled start time.

Please read 5.3(a) and 6.10.2(a)(b)(c)(f)(g)(h). Please may I ask you to ensure your umpires are fully aware of these rules, and that captains are too? Umpires must not be selective in which parts of the rules are applied.

Away teams please note - if you have asked for the home team to provide 2 umpires they have total control as to whether the pitch is fit or not and you have no say in it.

Please read 6.10.1(g), 6.12(c)(d)

If you have to rearrange matches for Sundays as per the rules, please note 7.7(a)(b)(c) regarding representative matches. If you have 2 or more junior players playing representative hockey, then these players must be identified to the Div Reps along with the representative match. Clubs who have junior matches on Sundays must forfeit the match if they wish their juniors to play for their own age groups and cannot field a Men’s League team. Rule 6.10.1(g) regarding rearrangements still applies.